Pay issues linger for teachers

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South Canterbury schools are still having to suffer through Novopay issues.

South Canterbury Primary Principals' Association president Carmel Brosnahan-Pye said primary school principals were beyond frustrated with ongoing issues from Novopay. "It's not getting better."

Novopay is the education payroll scheme implemented by the Government in 2012, and has so far had $33 million poured into it to fix problems.

Brosnahan-Pye said most of the issues stem from when changes are made to hours worked, or staffing.

Last year, schools received a small payment for the added workload, but the workload had not decreased and there was no added money.

She said several schools had been complaining at the most recent Primary School Principals' Association meeting, after noticing issues in the end-of-year accruals.

"The New Zealand Principals' Federation recently came out and said 80 per cent of principals have no confidence in Novopay.

"After our meeting, I would have to say it's on par in South Canterbury."

Aoraki Secondary Principals' Association chairwoman Janette Packman said she had heard the same issues among high school principals.

"We have similar levels of discontent."

The biggest issue from their perspective was the absolute lack of consistency.

"You call the helpline, one person will tell you one thing, call later and someone else will tell you something completely different. We want to be doing the right thing, but how would we know, if they don't?"

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce has revealed he expected money spent on ongoing issues to increase to $43m by June.

"Robust discussions" were continuing between the Education Ministry and Novopay's developer, Australian software firm Talent2, about who would ultimately pick up that tab.